In a spectacular display that signals the beginning of spring in Italy, the fields of Nemi, near Rome, are washed over by a red wave of blossoming strawberries.This is the first fruit to ripen as the weather warms, and this lakeside town has boasted the country's most well-known fields of fragolina di bosco, or wild strawberry, for more than a thousand years. In the U.S., strawberries arrive in late spring and last through summer. Eating locally grown strawberries is always ideal: hunt them down at your nearest farmers market and look for the small, sweet golden or red alpine varieties. Then use them in one of these sweet recipes.

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spring, strawberries, berries, fruit dessert, dessert